Status Updates From Capitán de mar y guerra (Au...

(It was smallpox in Huck Finn, not plague.)

I did a bit of research: O’Brian was apparently referencing an historical case of a British captain using that ploy, not Twain’s fictional one.

I may be constantly at a loss to understand all the nautical terminology, at least I’m able to get a good laugh by recognizing that Stephen Maturin fakes out the dangerous Spanish frigate Cacafuegos by using the same “plague” ploy that works for Huck Finn in ch.16 of Twain’s classic!